eujin wrote:I'm not so sure about that. It all depends what forces are rallied against them. Despite spending lots of money, the Chinese have been humiliated this year (and long had problems with corruption in football themselves) and the West Asians have been humiliated for years (and long had problems with corruption in football themselves) so it wouldn't surprise me to see a few wanting to see Korea shown up in public on the grounds of "getting tough". There are plenty of people in Asian football who would love to see the Koreans taken down a notch or two. The OFC booted New Zealand out of their Olympic qualifying tournament even though they qualified for the final and ended up sending Fiji instead. Suffice to say that the Kiwis don't have many friends in the OFC, not the least reason being they keep winning everything.
The AFC risks having a finalist or even a tournament winner with a big question mark over them. That might be enough to get a few sponsors nervous. Companies like Nike have been burnt by this sort of thing in football in the past.
On the other hand, they may do nothing.
Hmmm....
Reigning champions in danger of losing AFC Champions League spot
Yonhap News
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- Reigning Asian club football champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors could lose their chance to defend the title this year due to a bribery scandal, the South Korean pro league office said Thursday.
The K League said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed that Jeonbuk's eligibility for this year's AFC Champions League (ACL) will be reviewed by an independent judicial body called the Entry Control Body (ECB).
The ECB is external to the AFC and was established in December 2016. It has jurisdiction on reviewing and ruling on a team's eligibility for entering AFC competitions.
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